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Drafting Pens and Pencils

Pens

Although simple drawing pens were the most popular tool for engineering drafting, catalogs from the makers of mathematical instruments that appeared around the turn of the 20th century indicate that pens for special purposes were also important in technical drawing. These included: extra-wide pens for making borders; angled pens for drawing curves; double pens and pencils for adding railroads to a drawing; pen handles with serrated wheels that created lines of dots; and tracers and prickers. Makers also modified the design of drawing pens, for instance providing a reservoir for ink or allowing the blades to be opened for easy cleaning.

This page of objects gives a sampling of pens used for engineering drawing. In addition, it illustrates some of the evolution in pen technology from drawing and dip pens to fountain pens to ballpoint pens.

This 5-7/8" steel, brass, and ivory drawing pen has a spring inside the point to draw the tips of the point together when the screw is tightened to make a narrower line. The point is also jointed, so when the screw is removed, one side of the point may be opened to a 90° angle. The handle is marked: STANLEY.

William Ford Stanley (1829–1909) began making mathematical instruments in London in 1853. In his influential 1866 volume on the construction and use of drawing instruments, he called this form of drawing pen a "lifting-nib" or "jointed" pen. It was supposed to be easier to clean than a standard drawing pen. This example was probably made in the late 19th century.

This 5-3/4" steel, brass, and ivory drawing pen is marked: ELLIOTT. William Elliott began making mathematical instruments in London in the early 19th century. His sons, Frederick and Charles, joined the firm in 1850. They operated as Elliott Brothers after William died in 1853, expanding the range of instruments offered. This pen was probably made in the early 20th century. BAE Systems acquired Elliott Bros. in 1988. Archival materials may be found in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.

This 5-3/8" steel and ivory drawing pen is marked on one side of the pen point: D. R. P. 40967. On the other side, it is marked: BREVETÉES (/) S. G. D. G. These marks mean that the maker had received German and French patents on the pen after Germany established its unified patent law in 1877. Compare to 1978.2110.08 and 1978.2110.09.

The previous owner collected more than 1,200 hand tools and machine tools and displayed them at his family's building company in Baltimore, Md.

This 5-1/16" steel, German silver, and ivory drawing pen has no identifying marks. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many makers of mathematical instruments in the United States and Europe sold drawing pens with ivory handles to draftsmen and other people who made engineering and architectural drawings. For instance, Keuffel & Esser and Dietzgen advertised similar pens for $1.80. The screw allowed users to adjust the width of the point and thus the width of a line made by dipping the pen in ink and then writing on paper.

This 3-3/4" German silver and ivory drawing pen is missing the decorative bulb that would have been at the top of the handle. As with other ivory-handled drawing pens, the point may be unscrewed from the handle. Pens like this were sold for engineering drawing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Compare to 1977.0279.01, 1978.2110.07, 1978.2110.08, 1978.2110.10, 1979.0420.01, 1983.0238.01, 1990.0115.01, 1990.0115.02, MA*309654, MA*315411, MA*317925.04, MA*318491, MA*323412, MA*334622, MA*335300, MA*335335, MA*335353, MA*335355.

This 4-3/4" steel, German silver, and metal drawing pen is marked on the tightening screw: SOELLNER (/) GERMANY. Soellner was a 20th-century German manufacturer of drawing instruments.

William J. Ellenberger (1908–2008), who owned this pen, studied electrical and mechanical engineering at The George Washington University between 1925 and 1934. He then worked for the Potomac Electric Power Company and the National Bureau of Standards. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He was a civilian construction management engineer for the army from 1954 to 1968, when he became a private consultant.

This 5-3/8" steel, German silver, and ebony drawing pen is marked on the blade: E. D.–Co. UNION. A piece missing from the top of the handle may have been intentionally shaved away instead of accidentally broken.

As part of its Gem Union product line, the Eugene Dietzgen Co. of Chicago sold similar drawing pens, described as 5-1/2" long, in 1904 as model 502 for $1.20 and in 1926 as model 623 for $4.00. Engineer William J. Ellenberger (1908–2008) owned this pen. For his biography, see 1981.0933.25.

This 4-7/8" pen for making engineering, surveying, and railroad drawings consists of a steel curved tip with a tightening screw attached to a thin rod that runs through a ridged German silver cylinder to be secured by a German silver screw top. Tightening or loosening the top allowed the user to create straight or curved lines. (The blades of the pen point swiveled when the top was loosened.) Numerous sellers of drawing instruments offered curve pens in the first half of the 20th century; they usually charged about $1.50.

The donor, Sebastian J. Tralongo (1928–2007), served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and then worked for the Vitro Corporation in Rockville, Md., for 35 years. He patented a device for signaling from deeply submerged submarines. The object was received with several other drawing instruments in a wooden box, 1984.1071.13.

This 6" aluminum, German silver, and steel drawing pen is marked: CORN.KNUDSEN. Trademarks of two superimposed dividers are on either side of the mark. In 1838 Cornelius Knudsen founded a firm in Copenhagen, Denmark, that made optical, navigational, and surveying instruments, planimeters, and equipment for telegraphy into the 1930s. This object was received and is stored with a set of drawing instruments, 1985.0909.01. It was owned by Harald Trap Friis (1893–1976), a Danish emigrant who became a prominent radio engineer for Bell Labs.